JF Ptak Science Books Post 1964
This is a short and developing list of 36 principal works in the history of science, a list of integral and indispensable thinking. Its just the beginning of the list, really, and for the most part I've selected only one or two examples for each letter--the process has been pretty quick and without too much need for deliberation, what with selecting the obvious and all. Nearly all are selected from the collection of the University of Adelaide, which has more full text works across the fields of intellectual history.
Edwin A.
Abbott, 1838–1926
Flatland
Aristotle
(384–322 BC)
Physics (or Physica); On the
Heavens (or De Caelo); On Generation and Corruption (or De
Generatione et Corruptione); Meteorology (or Meteorologica);
On the Soul (or De Anima); Parva Naturalia (or Little
Physical Treatises):; On sense and the sensible (or De Sensu
et Sensibilibus); On memory and reminiscence (or De Memoria
et Reminiscentia); On sleep and sleeplessness (or De Somno
et Vigilia); etc.
Archimedes,
ca.287–212 BCE
On the Sphere and Cylinder;
Measurement of a Circle; On Conoids and Spheroids;
On Spirals; On the Equilibrium of Planes; The
Sand-Reckoner; The Quadrature of the Parabola; On
Floating Bodies; Book of Lemmas; The Method
Treating of Mechanical Problems
Apollonius
of Perga, ca. 262 BC–ca. 190 BC
On Conic Sections
Francis
Bacon, 1561–1626
Advancement of Learning; Novum
Organum; New Atlantis
Bacon,
Roger, 1214?–1294
Friar Bacon His Discovery of the
Miracles of Art, Nature, and Magick
George
Berkeley, 1685–1753
An Essay towards a new theory of
Vision [1709, 1732]; The Analyst: a Discourse addressed to
an Infidel Mathematician [1734]; A Defence of Free-Thinking
in Mathematics [1735]
Nicolaus
Copernicus, 1473–1543
On the Revolutions of Heavenly
Spheres
Charles
Darwin, 1809–1882
The Voyage of the Beagle; The
Origin of Species; The Descent of Man
Rene
Descartes, 1596–1650
Rules for the Direction of the Mind
[1628]; Discourse on the Method [1637]; Meditations
on First Philosophy [1641]; Objections Against the
Meditations and Replies; The Geometry [1637]
Euclid, ca.300
BCE
The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements
Michael
Faraday, 1797–1867
Experimental Researches in
Electricity
Jean
Baptiste Joseph Fourier, 1768–1830
Analytical Theory of
Heat
Galen, 131–201
On
the Natural Faculties
Galileo
Galilei, 1564–1642
Dialogues Concerning the Two New
Sciences
William
Gilbert, 1540–1603
On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies
William
Harvey, 1578–1657
On the Motion of the Heart and Blood
in Animals; On the Circulation of Blood; On the
Generation of Animals
Robert
Hooke, 1635-1703
Micrographia
Thomas
Henry Huxley, 1825–1895
Essays
Christiaan
Huygens, 1629–1693
Treatise on Light
William
James, 1842–1910
Principles of Psychology
Edward
Jenner, 1749–1823
On Vaccination Against Smallpox
Johannes Kepler,
1571–1630
Epitome of Copernican Astronomy (Books IV –
V); The Harmonies of the World (Book V)
Jean–Baptiste
Lamarck, 1744–1829
Philosophie zoologique
Antoine
Laurent Lavoisier, 1743–1794
Elements of Chemistry
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1646–1716
Joseph
Lister, 1827–1912
On the Antiseptic Principle of the
Practice of Surgery
Lucretius
(98?–55 BC)
On the nature of things
Charles
Lyell, 1797–1875
Principles of Geology; The
Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man; Elements of
Geology
Thomas
Malthus, 1766–1834
An essay on the principle of
population
James
Clerk Maxwell, 1831-1879
A treatise on electricity and
magnetism [1873]
Isaac
Newton, 1642–1727
Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy; Optics
Nicomachus
of Gerasa, c. 60–c. 120
Introduction to Arithmetic
Blaise
Pascal, 1623–1662
Scientific and mathematical essays
Louis
Pasteur, 1822–1895
The germ theory and its applications
to medicine and surgery
Ptolemy,
c.90–c.168
The Almagest
John
Tyndall, 1820–1893
Six Lectures on Light [1873]
Andreas
Vesalius, 1514-1564
On the fabric of the human body
Alexander
von Humboldt, 1769–1859
Travels to the Equinoctial
Regions of America
Alfred
Russel Wallace, 1823–1913
Contributions to the Theory of
Natural Selection
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